Sold on Earth, Chosen by Beasts

Prologue

"Huff… Huff…"

Nyx panted heavily as she ran through the streets as though her life depended on it.

Her pendant was burning hotter than ever before. She could feel it against her collarbone, blazing beneath the fabric of her dress. Yet strangely, it didn't burn her skin. Instead, the heat felt warm, urgent… alive in a way it never had in the twenty years she had worn it.

But Nyx was far too busy running from Victor Romano and his men to pay attention to it or question what was happening.

She glanced back over her shoulder.

They were still chasing her.

Worse—they were getting closer.

Panic surged through her veins, forcing her to push her exhausted body even faster, even when it already felt impossible.

Ahead, the street opened into a crowded intersection.

Traffic.

The signal was red.

Nyx ran anyway.

Behind her, she could hear men shouting, but their voices were drowned out by the deafening noise of honking vehicles and screeching brakes.

Then—

A loud horn blasted through the chaos.

Nyx turned her head.

A massive truck was speeding directly toward her.

Her eyes widened in horror.

Too late.

The truck was already too close for her to dodge.

At that exact moment, the pendant flared to life.

A blinding white light burst from it, impossibly warm as it engulfed both Nyx and her surroundings. The radiance was so intense that even the truck driver instinctively covered his eyes.

And in that strange suspended second before impact—

Her mind drifted somewhere completely unexpected.

Mrs. Parker.

Damn it.

Mrs. Parker had always scolded her for running around without watching where she was going, constantly bumping into people and things. She had always told me to fix that terrible habit.

But I never listened. Did I?

And now look what happened.

I didn't even get the chance to say goodbye to the Parkers before leaving this world.

If God ever decided to give her a second chance at life, then this time… she would finally accept Mrs. Parker's off—

Darkness swallowed her whole before she could finish the thought.

The truck was found three blocks from the bridal shop, its front end crumpled against the wall of an apartment building.

The front of the vehicle was completely crumpled.

The driver had suffered a head injury and lost consciousness, but he was still alive.

As for the girl in the torn white dress—

There was no sign of her.

Not a single footprint.

Not a drop of blood.

Not even one thread from her dress.

Nothing.

It was as though she had simply vanished from existence.

Or perhaps—

As though she had never belonged to this world at all.